The Royal Wedding: Kate and William

To celebrate the Royal Wedding last week, I baked a chicken, leek and mushroom pie (since the leek is the national emblem of Wales, and Prince William's last name is Wales) and made strawberry and chocolate cheesecakes for dessert (since Cadbury's used to be a Great British institution and strawberries and cream is very British). My parents put up British flags for the day, but hastily took them down the day after. It's very difficult to be patriotic these days, without being accused of being racist and/or a member of the BNP - so it was nice to indulge in a little acceptable patriotism on the day of the wedding.

I used to lean towards republicanism. Throughout the circus surrounding the death of Diana, I abhorred the actions or inaction of the Monarchy to recognise their part, however indirectly, in her suffering and death. I cried at Diana's funeral - not because we had lost "the people's princess" but because there were two young boys, my age, who had to follow her funeral cortege through the streets of London, and contain their grief in front of a television audience of millions. I guess I feel some kind of connection to these boys. Their first days of school were mine; the pictures of them riding a log flume at a theme park were identical to ours; William's gap year mirrored mine in many ways; Harry surely regrets some of his well-documented university antics the way I look at mine and think "what fun, but what was I thinking?!"; and the strain of William's often long-distance relationship with Kate took its toll, in the same way mine had. A sense of their privilege was never far behind, but first and foremost - they were just kids who liked the same music we did and suffered identity crises the same way we did - and now, they are adults, getting married like we are, still liking the same music we do.

I have no such attachments to the Queen, or to Charles - my interest in the future of the monarchy lies with William and Harry and this is why I am so happy to have watched the Wedding and seen it unfold the way it did. For a moment, I felt not just proud to be British, but proud to be patriotic, to embrace certain traditions, pomp and ceremony and eschew others (such as the promise to "obey"). I no longer lean towards republicanism - I support a modern monarchy, led by my own generation and I take pride in tradition, where it doesn't impede progression into a modern society (for example, I don't see the point in male preference primogeniture).



To change the topic ever so slightly - this cheesecake recipe is so quick and easy that I have to share:

+ 150g strawberries, blueberries or any other fresh or frozen fruit, cooked with 2 tbsp of caster sugar for a few minutes and cooled
+ 5 digestive/oatmeal/chocolate chip/any biscuits, whizzed in a processor or bashed and mixed with 25g melted butter and pressed into the bottom of 4 glasses and chilled
+ 250g tub of mascarpone
+ 4 tbsp double cream
+ 4 tbsp icing sugar
+ 1 lemon , zested and juice (optional, but balances out the sweetness of the cream cheese mixture)

Mix the mascarpone, double cream, icing sugar, lemon juice and zest together. Make alternative layers of cheesecake and fruit mix in each glass and serve.

(Recipe credit: BBC GoodFood)